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Messages - PicturEngine-JustinB
26
« on: December 06, 2012, 22:09 »
As stated previously in post : http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/picturengine-some-thoughts/msg283239/#msg283239...
My statements are clear when taken in context. (Anyone can change the meaning of a statement when taking text out of context.)
....
I will try to stay out of your conversations on this thread unless asked a direct question. I will need to respond, however, if misquoted.
Best,
JB
Does Justin and PE really believe that contributors will be willing to pay to be part of a service that effectively sends buyers to the cheapest source of their images? Is that what PE will offer for buyers? I've been convinced by Justin thus far, but my confidence is seriously shaken by this revelation. Justin, I'd really like to hear your explanation...?
Montys answer: Sadly, some users of this forum appear to be on a witch hunt, taking my old posts, removing a word here and there until my words (out of context, of course) say what they want them to say. Its called libel. We are and always have been crystal clear regarding price comparisons. Let me spell it out, W-E D-O-N--T! Furthermore, buyers see only ONE place to license an image. Please, please review the PicturEngine support center. Look, I love this industry. I love photography. I have profound appreciation for photographers. Its what Ive wanted to do all my life. I want this industry to survive. I want this industry to succeed! Every day I get up motivated to do everything I possibly can do to save, and ultimately reinvent this dying industry before its dead. Im simply offering an alternative, a fantastic alternative, to the status quo. If youre not looking for an option to constantly decreasing commissions, lower image prices, buyers frustrated by image duplication and marketplace chaos, and on and on, then dont join PicturEngine, its that simple. I understand skepticism and questions. Hey, Im skeptical and ask tons of questions every day of my life, and thats simply being smart and savvy. But outright libelous accusations, are just not productive to our common goal. May I ask that we keep the discussion based in reality by first reviewing the PicturEngine support center resources, and secondly by reading original posts rather than concocted and false misquotes. If after reviewing these resources, something remains unclear, please PLEASE, by all means, ask me!! Please try to keep in mind that Im a photographer, I think like a photographer, I know what its like to be a photographer. Were on the same team. Your success is our success. Please join me on this positive journey. Together we CAN create a bright future for the stock photo industry. Best, JB
27
« on: December 06, 2012, 12:45 »
When we are notified that your account is canceled via PayPal, your payment method is removed. Your account and any images uploaded through our system will be fully removed in 48 hours. If this action was a mistake, please notify us immediately to reverse this action.
28
« on: December 06, 2012, 12:02 »
Thanks for the post Justin, could I just check, by "unique images" you mean salable as opposed to exclusive right?
That is how I read your post but just want confirmation as I am considering whether I am likely to recoup if I subscribe.
Correct. Unique salable images. Best, JB
29
« on: December 06, 2012, 11:26 »
first, it would be appreciated if you answered the paypal question --who is going to pay the surcharge & how is it explained?
This has been answered (many times over). We have been using PayPal for many years and are not violating any of the PayPal or credit card terms. Anyone, buying anything online, fully, totally, and completely understands, that businesses have to cover processing costs when selling items online. Furthermore, they (buyers of online content) understand that transactional costs (of doing business online, such as digital monetary transactions) are built into the price of goods purchased online. This is not spelled out, as it is understood as simply doing business online. PayPal and credit card companies take issue when brick and mortar businesses give the option to use PayPal or a credit card at the register (as a convenience to the customer) instead of cash, and then charge the customer an additional processing fee for that convenience. We have ONE price (the license fee you set, plus the fee to process it, and you keep 100% of that license fee). We do not offer cash as a payment option. From PayPal: Parallel payments enable a sender to send a single payment to multiple receivers. For example, your application might be a shopping cart that enables a buyer to pay for items from several merchants with one payment. Your shopping cart allocates the payment to merchants that actually provided the items. PayPal then deducts money from the sender's account and deposits it in the receivers' accounts. I hope this helps you better understand the platform. JB
30
« on: December 06, 2012, 11:22 »
grafix04 It appears you understand the platform from your post.( http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/picturengine-some-thoughts/msg283170/#msg283170) You also understand how PicturEngine can make the industry better for everyone, even those not actively participating, thats the goal! I want to address one thing, then Ill leave you to your scheming.  My statements are clear when taken in context. (Anyone can change the meaning of a statement when taking text out of context.) The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes cost effective with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you dont yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay. Stock Photo 101: The quality and quantity of images in a portfolio directly affects the number of sales and potential number of sales. This should not be big news. I consider this to be common knowledge or just math. Ive had the pleasure of representing several thousand stock photographers in my career. Its a fact, and should be no surprise, photographers with more unique images, make more money. Over a decade of compiled data tells me, on average, stock photographers with 1,000 unique images in their portfolio will make more sales/money than photographers with say, 200 images in their portfolio. This was not always the case, in the 90s a smaller portfolio often yielded successful (money making) results. Today, however, with everyone carrying a digital camera at all times, its harder to find unique images. You simply must produce a greater quantity of quality content to make the same amount of money. (The factors of price and license type are not addressed in this example to keep it simplified.) I will try to stay out of your conversations on this thread unless asked a direct question. I will need to respond, however, if misquoted. Best, JB
31
« on: December 05, 2012, 11:30 »
Several of you are getting the point of PicturEngine and seeing that the forest extends beyond the trees. Its very difficult to start a new agency/platform (or whatever) without breaking through the critical mass barrier first. Before reaching critical mass, its not worth the time and money advertising (for 100 niche photographers or even 500,000 niche images) because the biggest bang for the buck in advertising is NOT niche, its general, its everyone, and its BIG! PicturEngine solves this critical mass problem, from day ONE. With PicturEngine there is no need to target advertising to a highly specific group or niche, such as home related or travel related buyers, as we do with my other two agencies. Every image buyer is a prospective client to use PicturEngine. PicturEngine just makes image buying easier. Many who are asking about our advertising/marketing plan need to remember we already have a sizable image buying client base (over 40k confirmed image buyers and growing daily) from our established agencies. Many of our image buyers do specialize in houses/home lifestyle or travel/scenic, however, most of our buyers work for advertising agencies and have multiple clients. Weve been doing this long enough to know what effectively generates traffic and licenses images, and are also smart enough not to share our knowledge with potential competition (that is surely monitoring these forums).
PicturEngine is a brand, just as Google is a brand. We go to a search engine to find what we need. We are not new, as I personally come from the background of both creating and licensing stock, and know the holes that need to be filled. We have studied other platforms, where they succeed and where they have failed, and are bringing PicturEngine to the market with eyes wide open knowing what needs to be done to succeed.
The purpose of our recent push for the PicturEngine photographer platform is to get content onboard that is NOT currently at agencies, bringing our image buying audience truly unique content, right alongside the same ol stuff they can find repeatedly at agencies, but with duplicates removed to make the search faster, easier, and just better. Our advertising campaign will be unique and insightful, not only advertising for the same agencies people already use, but image buyers will regularly return to see what new and wonderful things our photographers and smaller agencies are adding to the mix.
The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes cost effective with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you dont yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay.
One last point I want to clarify, PicturEngine is NOT an agency. I am posting on this forum because some microstock photographers showed an interest and registered for the platform early on. They were tired of the current direction of the microstock industry and decided to do something positive about it. Thats what PicturEngine is all about.
Sorry for the repeat post, some of these questions were asked on the other "main" thread "Check Out PicturEngine"
Best,
JB
32
« on: December 05, 2012, 11:27 »
Several of you are getting the point of PicturEngine and seeing that the forest extends beyond the trees. Its very difficult to start a new agency/platform (or whatever) without breaking through the critical mass barrier first. Before reaching critical mass, its not worth the time and money advertising (for 100 niche photographers or even 500,000 niche images) because the biggest bang for the buck in advertising is NOT niche, its general, its everyone, and its BIG! PicturEngine solves this critical mass problem, from day ONE. With PicturEngine there is no need to target advertising to a highly specific group or niche, such as home related or travel related buyers, as we do with my other two agencies. Every image buyer is a prospective client to use PicturEngine. PicturEngine just makes image buying easier. Many who are asking about our advertising/marketing plan need to remember we already have a sizable image buying client base (over 40k confirmed image buyers and growing daily) from our established agencies. Many of our image buyers do specialize in houses/home lifestyle or travel/scenic, however, most of our buyers work for advertising agencies and have multiple clients. Weve been doing this long enough to know what effectively generates traffic and licenses images, and are also smart enough not to share our knowledge with potential competition (that is surely monitoring these forums).
PicturEngine is a brand, just as Google is a brand. We go to a search engine to find what we need. We are not new, as I personally come from the background of both creating and licensing stock, and know the holes that need to be filled. We have studied other platforms, where they succeed and where they have failed, and are bringing PicturEngine to the market with eyes wide open knowing what needs to be done to succeed.
The purpose of our recent push for the PicturEngine photographer platform is to get content onboard that is NOT currently at agencies, bringing our image buying audience truly unique content, right alongside the same ol stuff they can find repeatedly at agencies, but with duplicates removed to make the search faster, easier, and just better. Our advertising campaign will be unique and insightful, not only advertising for the same agencies people already use, but image buyers will regularly return to see what new and wonderful things our photographers and smaller agencies are adding to the mix.
The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes cost effective with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you dont yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay.
One last point I want to clarify, PicturEngine is NOT an agency. I am posting on this forum because some microstock photographers showed an interest and registered for the platform early on. They were tired of the current direction of the microstock industry and decided to do something positive about it. Thats what PicturEngine is all about.
JB
33
« on: November 27, 2012, 13:11 »
We can easily make a selection option within your admin account which charges you for the merchant fee instead of including it in the price. The percent rate will be based on overall PicturEngine subscriptions and sales, so the fee will be lower than you get anywhere else as an individual. PicturEngine was built as a platform, therefore implementing something like this is no problem. The goal is, as a group we are better off and all save more, collectively banding together resources.
let me know your thoughts on this option as a group, it is an easy option to implement. JB
34
« on: November 27, 2012, 12:45 »
@ Poncke - We have been working with PayPal as a merchant card processor on Corner House Stock Photo and Picturesque since 2006, and before then we used a standard bank merchant account. PayPal is very easy to work with compared to bank merchant accounts. As for charge backs, they will happen, and the PayPal system is equipped to deal with it smoothly and efficiently. Again, we stay OUT of the middle and OUT of your business. The transaction is between you and your buyer. Also, if it makes you "feel" better, we can easily make a selection option within your admin account which charges you for the merchant fee instead of including it in the price. The percent rate will be based on overall PicturEngine subscriptions and sales, so the fee will be lower than you get anywhere else as an individual. PicturEngine was built as a platform, therefore implementing something like this is no problem. The goal is, as a group we are better off and all save more, collectively banding together resources. @ Monty - Our servers came down for a brief maintenance this morning. We are back up now, but without the search function for the moment. This weekend we had more images made live by more photographers than ever before on our system. It was a great stress test! We have mountains of data and logs now, so we know where to allocate more resources in the future. Also, weve received a large volume of emails this morning asking if registration is still open for the 90 day trial offer. Weve added the link back, for now. @ Lisa - I will try to call Jon back tomorrow to get that ball rolling. Weve been extremely busy and YES they are still on the list to implement along with SmugMug and others. Feel free to start bugging them too. Let them know that you want PicturEngine implementation asap. That may garner a faster response.
35
« on: November 26, 2012, 19:37 »
Our whole goal is to stay OUT of the middle, and out of your business and sales! By doing business transactions this way, we eliminate any accounting on our end, for your image sales, thus keeping our expenses lower and passing the savings to you as a flat fee platform. Buyers get a great price (you can afford to give them a great price and still be competitive when you keep 100%). Its a winning formula.
Without going into excessive detail, I will say this... I am not new to the stock photo industry. I have been here since the days of printed catalogs, FedExing film to clients, when research was done in house, when we (agencies) provided customers REAL service. Most of you know I own two traditional stock photo agencies, Picturesque and Corner House Stock Photo. Both have grown and evolved with our ever-changing industry. Four years ago, after the housing market crash, I knew it was time for a change, and thats when I started building the PicturEngine model. We utilized polling and surveys from our more than 40k active image buying clients to truly understand the essential elements of what clients and photographers need to succeed. Over 16k active image buyers returned surveys, and most surveys were completed directly after an image sale to ensure the feedback provided represents actual buying clients opinions and needs. Our client research shaped the concept behind PicturEngine into what you see today. The stock photo industry will continue to evolve and change, and PicturEngine is designed to evolve and change rapidly with the industry, as it is a platform to be built upon, not an agency.
Were living in a fast paced, connected, get everything instantly and get everything cheap society. We built this platform to benefit both image buyer and photographer, providing a direct pathway, saving the money in the middle.
...
What hidden expenses do you have (Paypal fees, gigabyte storage, etc)
--Paypal sales fees are passed onto the buyer. There will be other payment gateways added later, however PayPal is doing a great job and gives us everything we asked for.
--Storage fees are clearly defined on the site (we are currently using Rackspace Cloud files - 10 cents per GB per month, thats about $1 a month per 1,000 10MB Jpeg images). This is listed several places on PicturEngine. More storage providers will be added later, but Rackspace checks off all of the boxes we were looking for in regards to security, price, speed, service, and overall usability.
...
How does the system determine image cost?
You set your own prices. We show you crowdsourced pricing from other photographers on the PicturEngine platform (high, low, and average prices) when you click on the Need Help Pricing? link in your image pricing area. Also, after launch we will enable active sales pricing, where you can see crowdsourced data on the (high, low, and average) actual current selling prices on the platform.
Please read my posts over again. We are building this platform with both Image buyers and photographers in mind, to adapt and change with the ever changing stock photo marketplace. Prices in our marketplace change daily. We can just agree to disagree. Best, JB
36
« on: November 26, 2012, 19:08 »
Poncke,
The PayPal fees go through the PicturEngine PayPal account as a group or cumulatively to get the best rate. We use PayPal parallel payments to process and pay multiple photographers at once.
As stated previously, photographers keep 100% of the price they set. If you set an image price for $100, you receive $100 when your image is licensed. The cost of the transaction is paid by the buyer and is included in the license fee they pay. The buyer simply pays the price you set, plus the PayPal transaction cost as the image license fee. The PayPal processing percentage fee decreases as our sales volume increases. Buyers will not know the price you set, as they only see one price and that includes the transaction fee from PayPal and we add NOTHING else. Weve been working on the system to make sure it updates accurately with the current percentage as sales and subscriptions increase. This process will be fully automated before we go live.
Our whole goal is to stay OUT of the middle, and out of your business and sales! By doing business transactions this way, we eliminate any accounting on our end, for your image sales, thus keeping our expenses lower and passing the savings to you as a flat fee platform. Buyers get a great price (you can afford to give them a great price and still be competitive when you keep 100%). Its a winning formula.
37
« on: November 26, 2012, 15:09 »
I was willing to try the site, but when something pops up that says $240 for PayPal billing for the beta test, I'm not sure I want to go through 90 days of trial followed by 90 days of trying to get the billing stopped. (potential problems, not accusing)
What would be nice is a real 90 days trial, that doesn't sign me up and doesn't charge to my PayPal account IN ADVANCE...
Hi RacePhoto, The 90 day trial charges your PayPal account 1 (one) penny if you signup today. I think PayPal does that to make sure your account is working and has a payment source attached. So it is not actually "free" it is a penny for the first 90 days. If you are not happy, you can cancel anytime before the trial period ends via your PayPal subscriptions area, PayPal makes it pretty easy. Best, JB
38
« on: November 26, 2012, 10:58 »
So have I missed the explanation of what sort of marketing you're planning to do? How you're getting the buyers to the site? What you'll be telling them about why they should use your service?
jsnover, I have given an explanation to mantis on the main PicturEngine thread here it is: http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/check-out-picturengine/msg281479/#msg281479 Note: I have also addressed many other questions on that thread. Part of that answer: Mantis,
what is your "basic" marketing plan and budget for year one, two and three?
Without going into excessive detail, I will say this... I am not new to the stock photo industry. I have been here since the days of printed catalogs, FedExing film to clients, when research was done in house, when we (agencies) provided customers REAL service. Most of you know I own two traditional stock photo agencies, Picturesque and Corner House Stock Photo. Both have grown and evolved with our ever-changing industry. Four years ago, after the housing market crash, I knew it was time for a change, and thats when I started building the PicturEngine model. We utilized polling and surveys from our more than 40k active image buying clients to truly understand the essential elements of what clients and photographers need to succeed. Over 16k active image buyers returned surveys, and most surveys were completed directly after an image sale to ensure the feedback provided represents actual buying clients opinions and needs. Our client research shaped the concept behind PicturEngine into what you see today. The stock photo industry will continue to evolve and change, and PicturEngine is designed to evolve and change rapidly with the industry, as it is a platform to be built upon, not an agency.
Were living in a fast paced, connected, get everything instantly and get everything cheap society. We built this platform to benefit both image buyer and photographer, providing a direct pathway, saving the money in the middle.
As for marketing/advertising the search engine, well use any and every means possible to get the word out about the PicturEngine industry-wide search engine. Advertising mediums are changing just as fast as our industry, and there is a direct link between the two. I personally embrace change and am excited to try new things. Our goal is to get as many photographers, platform users, and smaller agencies on the PicturEngine platform as possible before we launch, to make our launch a huge success! I hope all of you decide to join in your own way.
......
I hope this helps explain some more about PicturEngine. Looking forward to getting more of you registered before the end of our Cyber Monday sale!
Stay ahead of the curve!
JB
39
« on: November 26, 2012, 10:42 »
Mantis,
what is your "basic" marketing plan and budget for year one, two and three?
Without going into excessive detail, I will say this... I am not new to the stock photo industry. I have been here since the days of printed catalogs, FedExing film to clients, when research was done in house, when we (agencies) provided customers REAL service. Most of you know I own two traditional stock photo agencies, Picturesque and Corner House Stock Photo. Both have grown and evolved with our ever-changing industry. Four years ago, after the housing market crash, I knew it was time for a change, and thats when I started building the PicturEngine model. We utilized polling and surveys from our more than 40k active image buying clients to truly understand the essential elements of what clients and photographers need to succeed. Over 16k active image buyers returned surveys, and most surveys were completed directly after an image sale to ensure the feedback provided represents actual buying clients opinions and needs. Our client research shaped the concept behind PicturEngine into what you see today. The stock photo industry will continue to evolve and change, and PicturEngine is designed to evolve and change rapidly with the industry, as it is a platform to be built upon, not an agency.
Were living in a fast paced, connected, get everything instantly and get everything cheap society. We built this platform to benefit both image buyer and photographer, providing a direct pathway, saving the money in the middle.
As for marketing/advertising the search engine, well use any and every means possible to get the word out about the PicturEngine industry-wide search engine. Advertising mediums are changing just as fast as our industry, and there is a direct link between the two. I personally embrace change and am excited to try new things. Our goal is to get as many photographers, platform users, and smaller agencies on the PicturEngine platform as possible before we launch, to make our launch a huge success! I hope all of you decide to join in your own way.
What hidden expenses do you have (Paypal fees, gigabyte storage, etc)
--Paypal sales fees are passed onto the buyer. There will be other payment gateways added later, however PayPal is doing a great job and gives us everything we asked for.
--Storage fees are clearly defined on the site (we are currently using Rackspace Cloud files - 10 cents per GB per month, thats about $1 a month per 1,000 10MB Jpeg images). This is listed several places on PicturEngine. More storage providers will be added later, but Rackspace checks off all of the boxes we were looking for in regards to security, price, speed, service, and overall usability.
-- We have other options available on a credit use system. (You receive 100 free credits to use per month as a beta photographer.) Some options for credit use include:
Front page advertising - Provides you an opportunity to be seen on our front page and directly link to your image on PicturEngine.
Keywording Tool - We help you keyword your images using our proprietary process. (Our visual keywording technology will be switched on when the visual search goes live on the site after our launch.)
Image and pricing analytics - We show you live and historical search analytics on the platform to help you submit, price, and keyword images, making the most of your efforts.
How does the system determine image cost?
You set your own prices. We show you crowdsourced pricing from other photographers on the PicturEngine platform (high, low, and average prices) when you click on the Need Help Pricing? link in your image pricing area. Also, after launch we will enable active sales pricing, where you can see crowdsourced data on the (high, low, and average) actual current selling prices on the platform.
PicturEngine is a platform to be built upon. We already have several developers asking for our SDK (Software Development Kit) to get started on new tools.
I hope this helps explain some more about PicturEngine. Looking forward to getting more of you registered before the end of our Cyber Monday sale!
Stay ahead of the curve!
JB
40
« on: November 26, 2012, 10:38 »
@ Les - Yes, you can downgrade and keep your status, although I think when you see what we have to offer you will stick with it. @ Mantis - Please read my old posts, I address this. @Kenny Great detective work! Although, I have several hundred domains, all photo related.
Most of my domains point to www.picturengine.com cornerhousestock.com or picturesque.com depending on the specialty, I find this great for SEO:)
41
« on: November 24, 2012, 15:12 »
Hi MSG, Please submit fixes to our support team for faster service. Our support team is not monitoring user groups for bug or fix requests, only our support channels. http://support.picturengine.com/ and [email protected]Answers to your questions on this forum: Sharpshot,
Wouldn't accept my UK post code--- Now Fixed Can I use the UK version of Rackspace?--- Absolutely, you sign up for cloud storage through Rackspace in the country you live (or nearest to you). Rackspace should auto detect your country when you are on their site. You can always look in the upper right corner of the page (on Rackspace) and verify the country selection, look for the flag. On our Rackspace registration page you should also see Rackspace support numbers in various countries and languages. Luis
Where is the FTPimage folder?--- We are now creating the FTP folders instantly instead of scheduling them every 6 hours. Mtkang
Is the offer of free trial still on?--YES until Monday, 12 Midnight, Central Standard Time Sharpshot,
"Hopefully it wont take much time to upload around 1,000"--Depending upon your upload speed, you can make 1,000 images live easily with only a few clicks (100 images at a time). These directions are explained on the site once you login. 1. Fill in your account info completely. (We embed and update this info in your images metadata when licensed, if its not already present. Make sure to keep this info current.) 2. Set your price(s). (We provide examples and crowdsourced site data to help. After launch, well add actual crowdsourced sales data.) If all of your images are already keyworded, captioned, etc. -- 3. Make one image live to set your default preferences (price, copyright, year - your preferences are set by the last image you made live). Select View 100 Images at a time (bottom of the page) and click Make All Live. The page will refresh after your images are queued, then click the same button 9 more times and they will be live on the site within 2-6 hours depending on traffic at the time. Images can be viewed and/or modified at any time after finalizing via the Images > View section. Please allow 2-6 hours for updates to reflect in the main search. Jsnover Mantis and others,--I understand your concern about the flat fee prices we charge for our platform. After studying piles of data including years of operating costs, advertising costs and expenses, we boiled it down to the flat fee per user prices you see on our platform today. The reason it is common for microstock and RF agencies to take a bigger commission is the simple fact that it costs more to properly market and represent these types of images. This is the reason we offer 3 levels of participation: --Advertising Only: $10 per month for the first 10,000 images and you bring your own sales platform (youll spend more than this just to send out a monthly email or to use Adwords to draw traffic to your sales platform). -- Rights Managed: $20 per month with unlimited images/sales with no commissions! --Royalty Free and Rights Managed: $40 per month with unlimited images/sales with no commissions! We all know the current path of our industry is unsustainable. Commission paying agencies are going out of business or being bought up nearly every week now. I am doing my part to make a positive difference. Hope you will join me. Best, JB
42
« on: November 23, 2012, 10:30 »
Hi, Were joining the Black Friday frenzy with a special offer! 90 day (3 Month) FREE trial on the PicturEngine RM or RM/RF platform! Register before midnight Cyber Monday using the link on our front page. http://www.picturengine.com/The full platform will launch very soon so heres your chance to get started before our official public launch. I am so very excited for the future of our industry and what we can do together. Stay ahead of the curve, JB ps. Tell your friends!
43
« on: November 23, 2012, 10:26 »
Hi, Were joining the Black Friday frenzy with a special offer! 90 day (3 Month) FREE trial on the PicturEngine RM or RM/RF platform! Register before midnight Cyber Monday using the link on our front page. http://www.picturengine.com/The full platform will launch very soon so heres your chance to get started before our official public launch. I am so very excited for the future of our industry and what we can do together. Stay ahead of the curve, JB ps. Tell your friends!
44
« on: November 09, 2012, 15:47 »
I can't help thinking that if there's 100 of us paying $480 a year for this, that's $48,000. Wouldn't we be better of running our own site? I'm sure we could do that for much less, get over 1 million images in it and get it listed for free with PicturEngine.
Hi Sharpshot, First off, we will be happy to include your collection for FREE once you reach 1 million unique images. Finding 100 great photographers with at least 10,000 good saleable images each, should be a snap.  We are looking forward to hosting your collaborative collection! As an experienced business person in this industry, I caution you on your estimate of how far $48,000/year will take you. In my experience, this is not even enough to cover your server expenses and bandwidth representing a million images for a year. We represent 872 photographers with just under 900,000 images between my two agencies (Corner House Stock Photo and Picturesque). I am very familiar with the daily operating expenses of running a stock photo business. I know the day-to-day costs involved and we have priced the PicturEngine platform appropriately, all while providing photographers 100% of their image licenses. PicturEngine offers photographers an excellent platform at the best possible price, all while including the other platforms providing services in the marketplace. If you are already on one, there is no need to change, just add our Advertising Only plan. If your platform is not on our list, it will be soon. I have made this promise to our Beta photographers: Your price as a Beta photographer will NEVER go up and will always be the LOWEST we ever offer (period). When we hit critical mass and are able to offer a lower price for our services, our Beta users will be the first to be lowered. I am not trying to be (too) condescending here. It is very frustrating to read a post like yours and not respond. I recommend you get onboard and actively help make changes to the way our industry does business, or stop complaining about your current situation. The future is bright and possibilities are endless if you choose to make the steps toward it. Best, JB
45
« on: November 08, 2012, 17:55 »
I believe I have understood how PE works and so on but when will it actually be online selling pictures/illustrations etc?
PicturEngine is online and currently licensing pictures/illustrations etc... The photographer sales and delivery platform is fully operational. Hi MSG,
PicturEngine is in public beta, meaning that we, along with beta participants, are working out the bugs before we fully launch the platform and start an advertising campaign. The photographer sales and delivery platform is fully operational. We are implementing new features weekly. I am not content with building a partial solution that can't keep up with our evolving marketplace, so instead, we are building a base platform to be built upon by future generations of photographers. Parts of the platform are taking longer to develop than anticipated, and we are working through the issues, solving the problems as they arise, and getting it done one bite at a time.
46
« on: November 08, 2012, 16:07 »
Justin,
1: Functionality is coming soon for illustrations and vectors - will this be in the beta period or will I have to part with my $480 and hope it turns up soon?
Hi Kat, Illustrations are on the site now, both from agencies and from PicturEngine platform photographers and can be uploaded within your account. They are NOT, however, separated from the main image search, as they will be once we turn on the visual search and sorting. We discouraged just one individual, who has 100% illustrations, from registering right now because the current search may not show his illustrations properly and in the correct order. Also, our current image processor only accepts and processes Jpegs. We are adding functionality every week. Our initial focus is photos and illustrations in Jpeg format, and we will then move to support footage after launch, and then vectors. 2: If I take the risk and part with $480, I will be doing so because I don't currently have my own website but would like to sell directly, and not pay as much as 85% to some stock sites selling my work. As I don't have my own website, I don't have any personal EULA in place and, as I am not legally trained, I'm not sure I am qualified to write one. You say that we have the freedom to set our own prices but I can't find anything with regard to licensing agreements so can you enlighten me please?
PicturEngine utilizes the PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) Standards for image licensing. Each image license and its usage terms are defined during the licensing process and agreed to when purchasing an image license. Furthermore, the PLUS LDF (License Data Format) is embedded in each licensed images metadata and is specific to the usage rights granted to that client for that specific license. Clients can take the PLUS Media Summary Code embedded in their licensed images metadata and decode their specific license using the PLUS Decoder. Organizations such as PLUS are here to make our lives easier, as we arent all lawyers. I recommend PLUS if you are making a go at it on your own. I would definitely take full advantage of what the PLUS system offers. http://www.useplus.com 3: You mention a cost of $40 per month, (which is a little misleading if you have to pay it all upfront and can't actually pay it monthly without being charged extra), and there are additional cloud storage charges on top of this. Will I have separate access to this storage and be able to effectively use this as a cloud back-up for my own files?
This answer has several parts: A. Our registration page clearly states $40/mo billed annually. Monthly payment options will be available after launching the platform, but discount pricing will still be reserved for annual billing. Please note that the Beta pricing gets you the best price we will ever offer and we start your 1 year clock the day we launch. Beta users (who register before we launch) will always get the best price offered (period). B. On the same registration page, we state Unlimited Images* and provide the definition and storage cost as you hover over the line item. When you rent a car with unlimited miles, you get the car to drive as much as you like, but you still have to pay for the gas. We are very clear that this is a pay ONLY for what you use system. http://www.picturengine.com/beta/register_p.phpC. You register for storage on your own, and its your storage account. We only gain access to your storage provider when you grant it to us via a secure API key. You can use your cloud storage account any way you like, as it is yours. We only ask that you not modify or change permissions on any of the folders we create for you, as that would break your image links on our platform. D. If you are interested in a long-term image backup solution, I recommend taking a look at AWS Glacier. Amazon Glacier is an extremely low cost (1 penny per GB/month for delayed retrieval offline storage vs. 10 cents per GB/month for instant access) storage service that provides secure and durable storage for data archiving and backup. We are currently testing and configuring Glacier as one of our backup solutions and may soon offer it to our photographers as a secondary backup (and possibly a storage solution for images that dont sell as often, however, the downside is an average of a 3 hour delay for image retrieval so this is not ideal for all images). Glacier does involve and require a substantial knowledge of coding to implement correctly, and we hope to soon build an app to streamline these processes for you. I am very excited about the advances in technology and availability of solutions like Glacier, lowering our expenses and making your lives easier. 4: As I am looking into the possibilities of having my own website in the not-too-distant future, I may wish to drop from the $40 plan to the $10 plan. Will that be possible, or will I be locked into the $40 plan for a full year?
If you register during the Beta for the RM/RF plan, youre paying for a full year, locking in that price for life. If you want to change to the Advertising Only plan, we can transfer the unused balance to your new account on a case by case basis. If you want your own site with a search, you may like to know that we have options for our RM and RM/RF platform photographers to display a search of only your images on our site or (embedded results) on your site. We will not build you a website, but we will however, offer the search capabilities of PicturEngine in an embedded private search link (PicturEngine branded for free or non-branded for an additional fee). Here is the current photographer search link on PicturEngine to a couple of MSG members. We have not yet enabled the embed site code, as this is just a test link with limited functionality. When searching from these links, youre searching through that photographer's images ONLY. http://www.picturengine.com/p/Lao01http://www.picturengine.com/p/Hoo01You may also add a /{keyword} at the end of the URL to search for a particular keyword within a specific photographers image collection. This is useful when sending a link to a buyer for a specific keyword search. http://www.picturengine.com/p/Lao01/business5: If I proceed, and you host portfolio so that I can benefit from %100 of the sale price, who collects the money? You mention PayPal fitting with your system, so are you collecting money on my behalf or will I be paid directly by the customer?
We use PayPal Parallel Payments to pay multiple users from a single transaction. The buyer performs only one transaction for images (from many photographers on the PicturEngine platform) and pays the PayPal transaction fees (about 2.9%), ensuring you receive 100% of the sale. We only facilitate the sale through our platform and dont receive any monies from the transaction. Other payment methods are currently being tested as well. PicturEngine is a platform to be built upon. Many businesses and developers have already expressed interest in building modules or apps for the platform, everything from uploaders to pricing and payment gateways, and more. This API / app process will be as open as possible to allow others to build upon the base platform. If youre a developer interested in building onto the PicturEngine platform, email [email protected] with the title SDK list to receive our Software Development Kit and Submission Guidelines when theyre released. I hope this helps answer your questions. Best, JB
47
« on: November 01, 2012, 16:50 »
So what are the platforms that have hundreds of requests? If there's some platform out there better than kTools, can you share what that is?
Hi Jo Ann, The external Advertising Only platform that we have the most requests and registrations for is by far PhotoShelter. If youre not currently using a platform and want my opinion on the best platform to use with PicturEngine, it is the one I built for photographers: the RM or RM/RF PicturEngine platform. I couldnt find a platform to perform all of the functions that photographers need, so I built one and included it as an option for those without a current sales and distribution platform. If you currently have a platform, great, use what you already have with our Advertising Only plan. Sign up NOW, its free until we launch, and only $10/mo for up to 10,000 images if you register during our beta. Theres really nothing for you to do for our Advertising Only other than to point us to your content, and we do the rest. The PicturEngine RM or RM/RF sales and delivery platform is a monthly subscription with advertising included. We keep it affordable and within reach for those who have an established library. Our platform service includes all of the features photographers have been asking for and none of the fluff. Were building a solution that can keep up with our ever changing industry. The platform is progressing and getting closer to launch every day. I invite you take a look at what weve built and send us your feedback. Best, JB
48
« on: October 24, 2012, 16:08 »
We have on the list for Ktools: Lisa, Jean, Tyler, and Cory If anyone else wants Ktools on the PicturEngine platform, please send an email with the subject AO List Ktools to [email protected] Please do not email any other correspondence to this email address, as it is only for keeping lists. We must use our time wisely to keep ahead. We are working through all of the platforms in the order of demand. Best, JB
49
« on: October 24, 2012, 11:47 »
50
« on: October 24, 2012, 11:43 »
Hi MSG, PicturEngine is in public beta, meaning that we, along with beta participants, are working out the bugs before we fully launch the platform and start an advertising campaign. The photographer sales and delivery platform is fully operational. We are implementing new features weekly. I am not content with building a partial solution that can't keep up with our evolving marketplace, so instead, we are building a base platform to be built upon by future generations of photographers. Parts of the platform are taking longer to develop than anticipated, and we are working through the issues, solving the problems as they arise, and getting it done one bite at a time. I encourage each of you to find out for yourself what PicturEngine is all about before drawing premature conclusions or judgement on what others have speculated to be accurate. Visit support.picturengine.com and do your own research and ask questions as any arise. To clear the air on a few topics: Will PicturEngine work with your distribution platform? The short answer is YES. We are implementing Advertising Only platforms NOW on a demand basis, and some take longer than others. If we have to take extra costly steps to implement your platform, you may need to pay a little more. For this reason, not all platforms are currently listed on the registration page. Also note that our Advertising Only registration is fully operational and you are NOT billed until we go live with the full search. A note on Ktools and demand... I asked that if your platform is NOT on our current development list when you register, that you send us an email to show your support for your platform and get it a place in line. So far we have received only four emails for Ktools implementation while others already on the list have hundreds. Feel free to email us at [email protected] with the subject Ktools (or your platform if it is not listed). Please do not email any other correspondence to this email address, as it is only for keeping lists. A note for those who expressed a plan to upload Crapstock (defined as agency rejects in other words) to PicturEngine... you are going to be disappointed. Agencies usually have a reason for rejecting an image if it is indeed Crapstock. HOWEVER, sometimes agencies just have too many of one subject. These are OK to send to PicturEngine, as we have the capability to properly rank, rate, sort and display these images that others simply cant. While there is no formal edit process on PicturEngine, your images are rated, ranked, and sorted by those searching on the platform, utilizing sophisticated metrics never before used in our industry (in other words, the Crapstock sinks). Great photographers, great images, and great keywords are, as always, what sells and makes the most money in our industry. That reality does not change on our platform, and its just the nature of our business. If you are using the PicturEngine sales and delivery platform (RM or RM/RF), you not only keep 100% of your license fees, you also get to see in depth image, keyword, search and sales analytics that could very well improve the way you shoot, submit, keyword, price, and ultimately license your images. Many of you have mentioned our $40/month plan for RM/RF. With this plan you get access to our full platform and have no need for a secondary sales and distribution platform. If you already have a sales and distribution platform, the Advertising Only plan is very affordable at only $10/month for up to 10,000 images. We import your data and we send the buyer directly to your site when a buyer clicks on your image within our results. This is a basic account without access to things like help with pricing or keywording or site analytics, etc., although access to these features will be added later at an additional a la carte cost. We take your data and import it into our engine, sending you traffic. With Advertising Only, you will need to optimize your own images, whereas if you are on our platform, we give you the tools to do that. We are building the platform for our future and appreciate your support. Stay ahead of the curve. JB
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